He was an enthusiastic angler, a skillful and untiring bear and deer hunter, and he generally timed his trips to the woods and mountains so that Joe and some of his particular friends could go with him.
"He is the most durable rod I ever saw," added my master.
"Well, then, call him 'Old Durability'," suggested Uncle Joe.
The boy said he thought that name would just suit me, and from that day to this I have been known by every one who is acquainted with me as "Old Durability".
Having introduced myself, because there was no one to perform the ceremony for me, and told you how I came by my cognomen, I will now go back and relate how I made the acquaintance of my master, Joe Wayring.
If you will review your own life, boy reader, you may be able to find in it some incident, which happened, perhaps, long before you were out of pinafores, and which you remember perfectly, while all your life previous to the occurrence of that particular incident is a blank to you. Just so it was in my own experience.
